The Past Lies In Our Hands
by Truth and Reconciliation
Summary: In a sudden twist of events, Master Chief Petty Officer John 117 is not stranded on the dawn.Instead,he, Thel Vadum, Sangheili Arbiter and Artificial Intelligence CTN 0452-9 Cortana are thrown back into the past to make things right.
1. Prologue

**A/N: The starting of The past is in our hands and The future is in our hands are the same. It is a crossroads of sorts, where multiple things could happen.**

**This story begins right before Master Chief Petty Officer John Spartan 117 and Thel Vadum, The Arbiter, makes the jump towards the open bay door on The Dawn.**

* * *

**Prologue **

Explosions surrounded them as Spartan 117 John and the holy Sangheili warrior, Thel Vadum who was also known as the Arbiter, raced towards the open bay door on The Dawn, A United Space Command Frigate in a Warthog.

The battered warthog accelerated to its maximum speed as the Master Chief floored the pedal and the warthog flew across the gap in between the platforms and the Dawn.

The warthog crashed and flipped. It flung both its occupants out of their seats before coming to a halt in jumble of smoking metal.

The arbiter was the first to get up and looked at the Master Chief, who nodded at him.

The Master Chief ran towards a Holographic Projector and linked Cortana, his Artificial Intelligence, to The Dawn.

Cortana told the Master Chief to hang on and sent commands to the frigate's fusion core to send power to all of The Dawn's primary and secondary thrusters.

The entire ship tilted as Cortana angled the ship towards space.

John ran towards the door at the back of the hanger, only to find that it was getting too steep to run. He fell to his stomach before crawling.

"I'm not going to make it at this rate" The Augmented Soldier thought to himself when a four fingered hand caught his arm and hauled him through the door before sealing it.

"Arbiter, go! You won't make it in time."

"Human, if there is one thing that you know about me is that I never leave battle brothers behind." The Arbiter stated as the lifted The Chief to his feet.

"If we don't make it, John, I just want to tell you that it has been an honour, working with you." Cortana told the sprinting Spartan.

Together, they ran down a corridor to the bridge when a bright light flashed through their vision and all was dark.

"Chief. Chief. John. Can you hear me? "

Spartan 117 found himself lying on a polished marble floor.

He got up and found that The Arbiter was not in a different position as him.

The Master Chief bent over, reaching for the Sangheili warrior.

But before he could, Thel Vadum groaned and picked himself up from the floor.

"Thank goodness you all are ok, I've been shouting at the both of you to get up for ages."

Cortana commented.

" Cortana, where are-"

"We?" Cortana interrupted. "I don't think I should be that you should be asking, John."

"If not you, then who? " John replied with a sarcastic tone in his voice.

"Me." A voice sounded behind them.

Both warriors of different races spun around and squeezed the triggers of their weapons.

Adrenaline from the recent escape made had made both of them twitchy and liable to react violently with anything shocking or sudden. Hypersensitivity was not helping at the moment.

Bullets and bolts of superheated plasma flew at a humanoid figure as it stood there, not moving an inch.

Instead of blood and gore spraying all over the floor, which the trio expected, the deadly projectiles and bolts of light hit a invisible shield which flared into visibility on impact.

"Twitchy, are we?" A humorous voice sounded.

The said figure stepped into the light and the figure was revealed as a

"Human?" Thel Vadum uttered in surprise.

"Yes, that was my race's original name. Although, I seem to remember that your race, the Sangheili, and the San 'Shyuum called us....what was that word.... ah yes. Forerunners."

The Arbiter's mandibles gaped as he switched his vision from his battle brother to the new arrival.

His knees gave as he fell before the Master Chief.

"Arbiter what are you....."

"Forgive me, holy one for what I have done to your rac-"

"Stand up, Arbiter." The Chief cut him off.

"No, holy one I-"

"Thel Vadum. Stand up now. This is a fucking order."

The Arbiter stood up reluctantly, avoiding the figure's eyes and the Master Chief's visor.

"Thel, look at me."

Ignoring him, the Sangheili shifted his gaze onto a corner of the room.

"Look. At. Me" The Chief said in the coldest voice he could muster.

The arbiter's startled eyes shot up and met the Spartan's visor.

"No matter what race we are labeled. That does not change what we are. You've seen personally that Forerunners are not invincible. Hell, most of us can't even match the strength of an average Sangheili civilian. Do we still look like gods to you?"

Thel Vadum's eyes lit with understanding.

"I apologize for my behavior. It was most unbecoming." The Arbiter said.

"And there's the Arbiter I know."The chief nodded and looked at the figure now known as a human.

"Continuing from where we were distracted."

The arbiter winced.

"Who are you and where are we? "

"First of, my name is Joshua Carrow. Where are we? We are in one of the many forerunner research and development factories at universe 24057."

"Send us back. Now."

"You're not in the position to make demands, Spartan."

Noticing the look of tenseness in John's body posture, he said

"Yes, I know all about that bloody Spartan program. Crude, but I'll admit that it was effective."

"As I was saying, I just saved your sorry ass from the Frigate you were in. Do you know what would have happened if I didn't intervene? Sangheili, you would arrive to Earth safely."

"And you," Joshua pointed at the Master Chief," would be drifting in space with half of a frigate and would currently be.... I don't know, stuck in a Cryo tube till god knows when."

"So, since we are here, what do you want us for? If it were for information, we wouldn't be in this room."

"Interesting deduction, John. Yes, you are absolutely correct. You see, I've been watching all of you. I mean every single one of you. Humans, Sangheili, San 'Shyuum, everybody. And I don't like what I'm seeing. So here's the deal. You two back in time. This event, never happen. You tally ?

Silence filled the room as both soldiers and an artificial intelligence were equally dumbfounded.

"So, you're saying that you're sending us back in time as an event changer of sorts." Cortana said out loud.

"Yes! The lady gets the prize!" Joshua replied in a dramatic voice

"Fine, it's not like we have any second thoughts or anything. When can we go?"

"Right now." Joshua Carrow said and pressed some holographic controls on a nearby wall.

An innocently looking piece of metal shaped like an arc standing in the corner of the room burst into action, a blue portal opening in the middle of it.

"Remember, this only works once. No second chances. The portal would take you to where you, John and you, Thel first had events that directly affected you. I have no idea where that would be."

With that Joshua stepped back and said "Well, just walk through the portal and you would arrive at your destination shortly.

"This is still an experimental technology and strange things may occur. Keep a clear head and always glue your eyes to your sights and you'll be ok. Good luck. You can enter the portal now."

Hearing that, Master Chief Petty Officer John Spartan 117, Thel Vadum, Sangheili Arbiter and Artificial Intelligence, CTN 0452-9, Cortana, entered the portal.

* * *

**Date: **September 19 2552

**Location: **UNSC Cruiser C709 Halycon Class Cruiser Pillar Of Autumn, Bridge

"All I need to know is did we lose them?" A grey haired man said.

"I think we both know the answ-"

"Alert, I'm detecting massive EM spikes in the bridge. Everybody move back! Marines, Bridge now! Captain I'm waking him." Cortana interrupted herself, changing the topic of conversation at the same time.

"Understood, Cortana." Captain Keyes said and backed away as electricity sparked all over a spot over a single point on the bridge of the Pillar Of Autumn.

A full squad of marines rushed in the bridge and formed a semicircle, aiming their MA5B Assault rifles at the sparks, which was now forming a blue portal.

Suddenly, a green armored foot stepped through the portal, followed by another.

All of a sudden, a huge man in scratched and battered brownish green armour appeared.

"Spartan.." Captain Keyes whispered in shock.

But it was what came after the Spartan that made everybody jump into action. An Elite stepped out, clad in a form of unknown ornate armour.

"Squid lip! Fire, Fire, Fire!" The marine Sergeant shouted and was about of squeeze the trigger when the Spartan held up his hand, blocking The Arbiter and stopped the marines with two words.

"Don't shoot." All of them recognized the voice as their residential Spartan that, by right, should still be on his way here even though the voice sounded years older.

"Master Chief, mind telling me what-"

Everybody's attention was diverted as another Master Chief Petty Officer John Spartan 117 appeared from the bridge door.

"What the.." The newly arrived Spartan said.

He walked into the room and stood in front of the other John 117 in Mark IV armor. The humans in the bridge were confused as both their neural interfaces read them as the Master Chief.

As soon as they touched, a bright light formed and when it faded, only one Master Chief was left. The one wearing the Mark Six armour. But it was different. The armour looked like it had just came out of the factory, in shining olive green with barely a defect on it.

John noticed that his HUD was different. It was showing two shield bars instead of one.

"Interesting. It seems that only the future bodies remain as to prevent a paradox where we kill our past selves and whatever they were wearing merges with what we are wearing to form a new singular object." Cortana said in John's internal speakers

"If that's the case" The Master Chief said as he walked to the Holographic Pedestal and put his hand over it.

Cortana appeared.

"Cortana, you look.." Captain Keyes stated

"Different. It seemed that I merged with this time's Cortana as well. I feel so fast. My processor is cleared of all errors and has improved by a total of 413 percent."

"What are you talking about?"

"No time to explain." The Arbiter strode forward. All the guns carried by the Pillar Of Autumn's Bridge personnel and marines aimed at him.

"The Elite is an ally. Do not, under all circumstances, shoot at him. Or you'll be answering to me."

The single squad of marines complied. No one wanted to incur the wrath of a Spartan, especially their leader.

"Cortana, we must destroy the sace- halo with haste!" The Arbiter commanded

"Affirmative" Cortana acknowledged and the Pillar Of Autumn turned to face the Installation.

"Mac Rounds Charged. Firing." Cortana said as Numbers and matrixes scrolled across her entire body faster than The Chief had ever seen.

Three separate MAC rounds shot out from the Cruiser at a fraction the speed of light and impacted on the ring. Explosions surrounded the ring as the structure began to disintegrate.

It wasn't even four seconds later when Cortana said again. "Firing"

"It's impossible for the MAC gun to fire that fa-" Captain Keyes was interrupted as the Pillar Of Autumn sent yet another round of MAC rounds into the crippled ring. Greenish grey splotches could be seen floating in the wreckage. The slowed down before stopping altogether.

"Scanning. No parasitic organisms are detected as alive. Entering Slip Space."

"We just had a slip space jump a few minu-"

Captain Keyes was proved wrong yet again as a hole was torn from the fabric of the universe as the Pillar of Autumn initiated its Shaw-Fujikawa space drives.

Once the Cruiser was safely in slip space, Captain Keyes lifted his hands and all the marines trained their guns at the Spartan and the Sangheili yet again.

"Time for some answers." He said simply.

Boy, were they in for a shock.

* * *

16/8/09-I have just added more details to the story. Hope you like it. Feel free to give me ideas or alert me to any mistakes that i may not have noticed.


	2. Explainations and Soap

**A/N I do not own Halo or anything else that relates to it.**

Last Chapter

"Time for some answers." He said simply.

Boy, were they in for a shock.

* * *

Chapter one: Explainations and soap

"Sir, I request that we go to a secure location. I think that this information is classified." The Spartan said.

"Agreed." The Captain replied before leading them into an interrogation chamber where sharp pointy objects, chainsaws, nail clippers and strangely....A feather could be found.

The Chief and The Arbiter followed Captain Keyes, sweating slightly in their armour.

The Captain went through the room and opened a non descript door at the back of it. The Soldiers could see a few chairs and a table beside it.

"Whew, for a moment there I thought we were going to be tortured." The Chief said with relief clear in his voice.

The Captain raised his eyebrows."Do you want to be tortured? I'm sure it could be arranged."

On cue, a bloody chainsaw started on its own, splattering old blood all across the floor.

A gulp could be heard from the once fearless Arbiter.

"Err...No thanks" John said in a rushed voice

"Take a seat." The Captain offered to the Arbiter.

"Don't I get a seat too?"

"Chief, your armour weighs a freaking ton. I know how heavy a ton is after I saw that marine buying a bowl of Chinese Wanton Noodles."

"That couldn't be that heavy..."The chief muttered

"He said One Ton noodle Chief." The Captain sighed.

"Still want to sit?" The Captain finally offered.

The Spartan declined in a sullen tone.

**(A/N **Readers must be aware that The chief has not sat down properly since the mission of destroying 343 guilty spark. No, sitting on a warthog chair designed for normal sized humans does not count!**)**

"Explain." The captain said.

"Sir, I know you may not believe this but..." The Spartan started.

"Go on..."The Captain replied as he took out a knife and started to sharpen it.

"This is taking far too much time."The Arbiter butted in.

"Thanks for saving my butt Arby."

"For the last time Spartan, No one, not even my battle brother, calls me Arby!"

"Fine, I won't you that name anymore....Arby."

The Arbiter snarled at the human super soldier before turning back to the Captain, who was sitting behind a desk.

"Since that Spartan of your is incapable of explaining things when not in a battlefield, I shall take over." The Arbiter said as leaned forward, his mandibles almost touching the captain's face.

"We come from the future."The Arbiter simply said.

Both the Master Chief and The Arbiter closed their eyes, waiting for the disbelief to come.

"Well that took damn long just to explain it.."

"What?" Both of them said.

"I already know that you come from the future. New Spartan Armour that I have never seen, a friendly elite being defended by a Spartan. Besides Cortana told me as we were walking."

"CORTANA!!!!!" Twin voices could be heard throughout the entire ship.

"I think I better avoid them for a bit." The AI said before coming back to her redesigning of the ships MAC Cannons.

"Jokes aside sir, we've got a lot to tell you."

The Arbiter nodded.

"The Ring that you just saw being destroyed is called Halo. The Covenant believe it to be a sacred artefact that enables them to travel a ' Great Journey'. "The Master Chief looked to the Arbiter.

"The Great Journey was a fake religion designed to bend soldiers of different races to the Prophet's will."The Arbiter continued.

Seeing the look of confusion on the captain's face, he explained" The prophets are the Covenant's leader. There are three main leaders. Regret, Mercy..and Truth." The Sangheili said darkly.

"They told us that by lighting the seven holy rings, we were to become gods."The Arbiter finished and looked to the Chief to continue the explanation

"Halo, in fact, is not a sacred object. It is a weapon, to annihilate all the Universes of their Bio-mass. I found this out after you crashed landed the Pillar of Autumn on the Ring. After that, I found...the parasite, otherwise known as...the flood."

The captain felt a chill run down his spine.

"The flood is a parasitic organism that takes over a dead body. Something like zombies. They turned you and picked your brain clean of all the information. UNSC tactics, Specifications, Earth. After close contact with the flood, I met the caretaker of this Ring; He was an AI, created by the makers of halo to safe keep the ring and maintain it for activation. He named himself 343 guilty spark. He fooled me to work for him, getting the activation codes for the ring, called the index. Cortana infiltrated Halo's databases and found out that the ring was actually a weapon that causes mass genocide. She managed to stop me just before I activated the ring. The monitor realised this and attacked us, for Cortana managed to turn the index into pure data and download it into her systems. I managed to escape and we discovered that we needed to destroy Halo before the flood got lose. Take heed that even a single flood spore can cause the death of a race. We needed to overload the fusion reactors off the Autumn to destabilise the ring. I found your flood body..."

On hearing this, the captain shuddered.

"and took your neural implants by crudely shoving my hand into your brain, got the overload codes detonated the Autumn, escaping by piloting a Longsword fighter out of Halo's atmosphere before it collapsed on itself. The Chief said.

"So that was how you destroyed the first Halo, Demon." The Arbiter commented.

"I see."The Captain simply said. "But that's just one side of the story. What about you? What's yours?" The Captain said, pointing at the Arbiter.

"I...was the Supreme Commander of the fleet of the Particular Justice. It is the second largest fleet in the Covenant. I was the one who chased you after you did a random slip space jump and followed you into Halo. At that time, I was still fighting on The Covenant's side. I was the source of all of The Chief's Covenant problems on Halo. At this time, I should be ordering all my troops to land on Halo was it not for us, who destroyed it. Where we come from, The Demon managed to destroy Halo and I was put on trial for Heresy. The prophets accused me of betraying them by not destroying your ship when I first saw your ship after the fleet exited slip space and I was convicted without trial. They tortured be for being a heretic and ironically made me into an Arbiter, the sword of the Covenant."

"What is this Arbiter position you talk about?" Captain Keyes inquired.

"The Arbiter position.." Thel Vadum took a deep breath before continuing.

"The title of Arbiter is the highest possible honor bestowed upon a Covenant Sangheili by the Prophets during a time of need, and is also the highest rank in religious significance, although the Councilor is superior in political or military rank. The Arbiter acts as a sort of field general, going on missions for the Prophets and during incidents such as the Taming of the Hunters, the Grunt Rebellion, and the threat of the Heretics.

The Arbiter is sent on the most perilous and suicidal missions in times of when he is needed. On those missions, the Arbiter is expected to die and become another great martyr of the Covenant on their path to the Great Journey. The Arbiters die most of the time during the mission that they are given."

"What is a Sangheili? "

"Sangheili is the name of my race, as you humans call the Elites."

"I see, I know that you all are speaking the truth. I need time to think about what I have just heard."

The captain said while tapping on a handheld PDA

"I've just issued all the personnel in the Autumn that you, Arbiter, is a ally."

"I am grateful, Captain." The Arbiter replied.

"Chief." Captain Keyes looked towards the other occupant in the room.

"Sir?" John replied as he stood at attention.

"I'm assigning The Arbiter to bunk next to you. The beds designed for the Spartans would be able to hold him. Dismissed."

Spartan 117 snapped a salute before heading out of the room, with The Arbiter in tow, passing by the now still chainsaw and *shiver* The feather.

"Arbiter"

"Yes, Spartan?" Thel replied.

"I know that I'm bending the rules a bit but, keep yourself armed with your energy sword at the very least. There are many humans in the Autumn that have lost loved ones to the Covenant."

The Arbiter nodded and both of them exited the room together.

They took maintenance corridors to the Spartan's living quarters, evading most of the crew of the Autumn.

"I think we better stay in our respective armours for a few weeks, until things cool off."The Chief said to The Arbiter

"You can sleep on the bunk next to mine. Your weapons goes in here, and...err..this is where your clothes should go."The Chief pointed out the respective locations and led the Arbiter to the Showers.

"This is where you clean yourself. Touch the sensor on the left to heat the water, and touch the sensor on the right to cool it. Motion sensors are built in it to make sure that it activates when you stand in front of it. Once you step away, it deactivates automatically."

"As of now, why not take a shower. I haven't washed myself properly since we landed on the Ark." John said.

He unsealed his helmet. The stench resonating from the armour made The Arbiter faint right smack on the ground.

"Arbiter? Arbiter!" The Chief rushed to the side of the fallen Sangheili after he resealed his helmet.

"The smell, too horrible. Curse these sensitive mandibles. I could _taste _the smell from here!" The Arbiter grumbled as he stood up.

"Okaaaay...... Cortana was right, I should have taken that bath when I had the chance two weeks ago."

The Arbiter, in hearing that, took a step back from the Chief, mandibles tightly closed.

"Brace yourself."The Chief said and with a nod from The Arbiter, unsealed his helmet.

"D....Demon!" The Arbiter stuttered, half choking from the stench.

"What?"

"No, your skin is so pale. It looks like the demons from our ancient Sangheili legends. It must have been rebel forerunners spending too much time in their combat suits."

The Chief did not reply and striped himself before entering a cubicle. The Arbiter did the same and entered a different cubicle.

Fifteen Minutes Later

The Master Chief came out of the cubicle, finally clean. He took a clean shirt and pants and wore them before donning his armour. There he stood...and waited.

Forty Five Minutes Later

"I would suspect that the Elites took long baths but this is ridicules!" The Chief said to himself.

Ten Minutes Later

"Oh shit, I forgot to tell him about the Soap." Spartan 117 shouted and ripped open the privacy curtain only to stare in shock.

"Demon, there you are. I did not know that you Humans liked to eat while cleaning yourself." The Arbiter said as he ate some more of the white gooey stuff.

"Err, I hate to break it to you but.... that's soap, we use it to clean ourselves oh mighty Sangheili warrior."

The Arbiter paused as he was furiously pumping the soap eject button while strategically positioning his mouth directly below the soap dispenser.

"What?????" A voice could be heard resonating around The Autumn.

"I can't believe I just did that.." The Arbiter said, standing in full armour with the Master Chief at his side.

The duo were exiting the showers when the Arbiter muttered under his breath "At least it tasted nice. I should do it again sometime. "

The Master Chief stopped.

"What is the matter....Spartan? Why is your visor red?"

"Nice he says! Argggh I don't know why I even try sometimes!" The Spartan shouted as he threw The Arbiter into a shower cubicle, using his immerse strength to keep the Sangheili's head in place as he forcefully opened Thel's mandibles before spamming the Soap eject button.

Three Hours Later

"And what have we learnt?" The Chief said

"Never to eat soap." Thel Vadum said in a sullen and soft tone.

*Hiccup* A Soap bubble came out of the holy warrior's mouth.

Both soldiers watched as it made its merry way to the ceiling before bursting.

"Spartan, I request that you never tell anybody about this."

"Or what?"

"You could taste the Sangheili's version of Soap. I've heard that Humans sometimes think it tastes like chicken."

"Deal." The Spartan agreed rather quickly before leading the way to the mess hall.

Both warriors entered it only to be stopped by hundreds of guns pointing their way.

"Oh shit." John muttered

"This won't end well" Thel said

"You got that right, split lip!" A marine shouted.

The people in the mess hall squeezed the triggers of their MA5Bs.

* * *

**A/N** I cracked myself up writing the soap part.


	3. Planetfall

**A/N I do not own Halo or anything else that relates to it.**

Last Chapter

Both warriors entered it only to be stopped by hundreds of guns pointing their way.

"Oh shit." John muttered

"This won't end well" Thel said

"You got that right, split lip!" A marine shouted.

The people in the mess hall squeezed the triggers of their MA5Bs.

* * *

In a twist of fate, The Arbiter gave a long belch and a multitude of bubbles came forth, acting as a smokescreen.

"Damn, that Bastard has something up his sleeve. Marines, spray into it!"

The Master Chief and The Arbiter, dodged to the side, stray rounds impacting on their shields causing them to glow and sparkle.

"Hold your fire! Squiddy wants us to waste ammo." A marine shouted.

Sensing the sudden lack of bullets, The Arbiter lunged out of the bubbles, energy sword flaring to life.

He took a swipe at a nearby human, slicing off his gun's barrel.

The Arbiter jumped, intending to cleave a nearby soldier into two.

Bang.

A sniper round impacted on the energy sword's hilt, causing The Arbiter to release it.

The Arbiter landed in a heap on the ground having lost balance due to the sudden impact.

A green blur rushed out of the bubbles and into the path of the next S2 AM sniper round aimed for the Alien warrior's head.

The Master Chief stopped in between The Arbiter and the Marine wielding a sniper rifle, his shields flaring.

"Johnson?"

"Damn right. Move your ass Spartan. If you haven't realised it, your defending a covie."

"The Elite is a friendly Johnson."

"Not the first time I've heard those Son of a bitches say that and shoot my men from the back."

The Master Chief opened his mouth to reply but a sudden gunshot cut him off.

Sergeant Johnson and John turned to see Captain Keyes in the doorway, a smoking M6D pistol pointed at the Ceiling.

"Enough! I've sent out orders to all of you that this Elite is not a danger to us. He is a valuable source of information. From now onwards, the penalty is raised. Anyone who even lays a scratch of the Elite will be charged with insubordination. Am I clear marines?"

"Sir yes sir!"

"Especially you Johnson."

"Yes Sir."

Captain Keyes gave a nod to The Arbiter and walked out of the mess hall.

"I don't know why the captain wants you alive, but look wrong at one of my boys and you're going to wish that I had killed you."

Sergeant Johnson spat and exited the mess hall.

The personnel in the mess hall resumed their conversations, but with frequent looks at The Arbiter.

The Arbiter picked up the fallen energy sword and stood by the Spartan's side.

"I saved your ass back there Arby, you must be slipping." The Chief said

"I have said it many times Spartan. Do not call me Arby!" The Arbiter said, shouting out the last part.

Sniggers could be heard all around the mess hall.

The Chief led the Sangheili warrior to the food dispenser where he showed the alien how to operate the machine.

They took their food and sat down at a corner of the room where chairs specially designed for Spartans in their armour were installed.

The marines near the corner moved away, making as much distance between the pair and themselves.

The Chief did not seem to care. Even without Thel here, no one sat with him.

They finished up, returned the trays to a allocated spots and left, with Spartan 117 in the lead.

The Spartan led The Arbiter into his quarters and told him that he would wake the alien in ten hours if he was not awake by then.

The two soldiers, exhausted from their ordeal, crashed into their respective beds and finally slept, after thirty hours of nonstop combat.

In his sleep, Thel Vadum turned and burped, a soap bubble floating out of his mouth.

The Sangheili sank deeper in the bed as he sighed.

A big fat smile appeared on his face as he hugged a gigantic bar of soap acting as a bolster that he had 'asked' from the cleaning department.

Spartan 117 woke up, the alarm he had set blaring next to his ear.

He sat up and stretched, his blur vision drifting all over the room before coming to a stop at the bed opposite him.

"What. The. Hell."

John's eyes locked dead on to the biggest bar of soap he had ever seen.

A four fingered hand was hugging it.

Wait, four fingered hand?

The events of the past day rushed to meet him.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose furiously as he stood up.

He opened his mouth to shout but shut it almost immediately.

"Too early in the morning...." The Spartan mumbled as he tapped the alien on the shoulder.

"mmm....soap....hehe" Thel Vadum was having the best dream of his life.

He ran through bars and bars of soap, picking one as he lay down on the soap filled floor, soap bar racing to his mandibles.

A hand tapped his shoulder.

The Arbiter opened his eyes to see a annoyed Spartan.

The Sangheili looked down to see the big bar of soap.

He jumped out of bed, shouting.

"Demon, I can explain! No more torture!!!"

The Master Chief shook his head and left to don his armour.

Thel sighed loudly and followed the human, after safely securing 'his precious'

He wore his body suit and put on his armour, checking its systems at the same time.

Both war heroes were ready in minutes and were trooping to the mess hall.

"This is Cortana, Chief, Arbiter, The Captain needs you on the bridge."

The Spartan acknowledged and changed direction, turning from the mess hall to the bridge.

The Arbiter followed behind, not used to the route.

They arrived at the bridge to find Captain Keyes and Cortana waiting for them.

"Glad you had a nice sleep." Jacob Keyes said.

The Master Chief snapped to attention while The Arbiter stood straighter.

"I've been talking to Cortana for the entire night. She had told me about the events that happened on installation five and the ark. We need to plan. We cannot run into things blindly. You two are already changing the course of the future. We cannot assume that everything would follow exactly as it did in your past."

"Captain, with your permission, I could return to High Charity to save myself before I get marked."

"No." Cortana said. "Without you become The Arbiter, we lose all chance of gaining the Sangheili Council's trust to make a peace treaty with the UNSC. With luck, we can destroy the Covenant before anybody gains knowledge of the Ark."

"Good idea Cortana. Set a course for High Charity. The Arbiter can merge with his past self once he gets into his armour."

Cortana was silent for a while.

"Captain, I've set a course for- wait... Incoming transmission from the E-band ."

"_This is General Tseng of the UNSC, the planet Aquarius has been attacked by the Covenant. Any UNSC ships in the vicinity, respond."_

"Cortana, link up with them."

"On it. Captain, link has been secured."

"This is Captain Jacob Keyes of the UNSC Crusier Pillar Of Autumn. We have received your transmission and are on the way. ETA four hours We will be sending ground reinforcements as soon as we get there.."

The Autumn turned in slip space, exit vectors completely changed.

"Alert, this is the captain speaking. All Soldiers are to report at their stations to prepare for ground assault. This is not a drill. I repeat this is not a drill. All personnel are to check their PDA's for updates on the current situation. Sergeant Johnson, report to the bridge. Keyes out."

The Captain turned off the intercom and turned to Cortana.

"Cortana, bring me a map of Aquarius."

A holographic map appeared in front of the captain.

"Data packets were also sent along with the transmission. The red zones on the map is where the Covenant have superiority. Yellow zones are where the fighting is and green are the safe spots."

Captain Keyes turned to the Spartan and The Arbiter. Both of you will land here." The Captain said as he pointed to a part of the map. Clear the entire area of covenant. This place will be used to set up our base."

Seeing Sergeant Johnson entering the bridge, The Captain included,

"Johnson will be following as well."

"What? There's no way in hell I'll work with a squid face bastard."

"Johnson, this is an order."

Johnson stared at the Sangheili in the eye.

"Fine, but he better not get in the way." The black skinned Sergeant said darkly.

The Arbiter watched the Sergeant leave the bridge before saying,

"That human seems to have a grudge against me personally."

The Spartan at his side shrugged.

"Who can understand that man? "

Captain Keyes, The Arbiter and the crew in the bridge stayed silent.

"When we arrive, Orbital Drop Shock Trooper pathfinders will be deployed. It's too risky to use a Unmanned Airborne Vehicle to scout. From what I know, The Covenant would have banshees up in the air. Both of you will be entering the atmosphere through a HEV. You are to report to ODST hanger three after arming yourself to meet with the squad you are commanding. Dismissed."

The Spartan saluted again and left the bridge, The Arbiter at his side.

Going to the armoury, The Spartan selected his usual armament of an MA5B Assault rifle and a M6D Pistol.

The Arbiter took his Plasma rifle and a shotgun, making sure his plasma sword was attached to his hip.

Both of them carried a bandolier of fragmentation grenades.

They exited the Armoury and went to the Hangers, where they could see multiple marines loading Scorpion Tanks, Warthogs and mongooses.

"Hell no, we get squiddy?" The two warriors heard as they stepped into ODST hanger three.

A group of men and woman wearing ODST armour were standing together, armed to the teeth.

The Spartan opened his mouth to reply but the intercom cut him off.

"This is The Captain. We have reached Planet Aquarius faster than we thought. Pathfinders are to deploy immediately."

A few HEVs could be seen deploying from a nearby ODST hanger as the brave pathfinders launched to their doom.

It was only half an hour later when one of them got through to a safe spot and planted a beacon before the soldiers in the Pillar Of Autumn were given the signal to launch.

In ODST hanger three, lights around the room turned orange as a signal to enter the HEVs.

The Orbital Drop Shock Troopers entered their Human Entry Vehicles with precision.

The Master Chief and The Arbiter secured themselves into HEVs made specially for the Spartan IIs and waited.

A voice rang on the fleet com. It was Johnson.

"Haha, this is it boys. All you covvies out there listening, this is Sergeant Johnson here. Just wanted to tell all of you that we are green, and very, very mean."

With that said, Cortana Launched all the Pillar Of Autumn's occupied HEVs before firing her MAC cannon at the nearest stationary CCS cruiser which was stationary around Aquarius'

stratosphere.

* * *

The HEV rocked as it entered planet Aquarius' atmosphere. John opened a squad wide communication.

"This is Sierra 117. Status report."

"This is The Arbiter. I am in no danger."

"This is Alpha-one, Jackson, reporting in!"

"Alpha-two, Hawkins here."

"This is Alpha-three Sanders, situation green."

"Alpha-four Julia. I'm ok."

"And this is Johnson. I can't believe I'm Alpha-five! Cant it be Al-"

The Chief shut off Johnson's mic.

"Listen up team. When we land. I want all of you to make your way to this location."

John picked a place on the map where Cortana had dubbed safe and sent its location to his team.

"Alpha squad. Our mission is to clear the landing zone of the entire area five klicks to the south of our LZ. We're charged with base location. We hav-"

The Spartan was cut off by Hawkins.

"Sierra, this is Alpha-two, I've cleared the cloud level. There is a scarab tank down there. I repeat, there is a arghh-"

"Alpha-two. Alpha-two. Hawkins! Respond!"

Static filled the com channel.

"Cortana!" The Spartan opened a link to his AI

"What do you need Chief, I'm kinda busy right now."

"There's a scarab at our landing zone. I need air support now! We're about to get shot out of the sky."

"I've sent a squadron of Longsword fighters to your position. They should be able to take it out."

It was then that the rest of Alpha Squad cleared the cloud level. John could see Hawkin's HEV free falling with half of it blasted off.

The Scarab gun's Anti Air defences automatically targeted them.

Suddenly, the Scarab was filled with smoke and fire as a squadron of Longswords dived from above, launching their payload at the Scarab.

The mighty Covenant Scarab Tank could not withstand the firepower of the longswords and exploded outwards, bits of metal flying all across the place.

A beeping sound alerted the Chief.

He looked to the source only to find the altitude meter dropping to below the 100s.

The Master Chief braced himself as the HEV slammed into the ground almost sending it bouncing as the weight of his armour affected the HEV more than the designers thought so.

"Time to go to work" Spartan 117 thought as he kicked open the HEV yet again.

* * *

**A/N: **This isnt one of my good chapters. Its a bit rushed. I had a bit of a writers block on it.


End file.
